1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image processing method, and more particularly, to an image processing method for smoothing the boundary of an image area.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a prior art image processing system 10. FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a picture image 14 in the image processing system 10. The image processing system 10 comprises a memory 12 for storing programs and a picture image 14, and a processor 16 for executing the programs stored in the memory 12. The picture image 14 comprises a plurality of pixels 18 arranged in a matrix shape. Each of the pixels 18 comprises red, green and blue parameters. The pixels 18 with similar parameters form at least one image area 20.
The purpose of performing an image processing method is to adjust the color of the image area 20 as well as to blend its boundary with the rest of the picture image 14. The image processing method is performed by adjusting red, green and blue parameters of each pixel in the image area 20 according to a predetermined color adjusting method, and then adjusting red, green and blue parameters of each pixel 18 in the picture image 14 according to an image blending method such as a lowpass filtering method or a median filtering method.
However, applying the image blending method throughout the picture image 14 is quite redundant because the purpose of applying the image blending method is only to smooth the boundary of the image area 20. Furthermore, although applying the image blending method can smooth the boundary of the image area 20, it will sacrifice the clarity of images outside the image area 20. In this case, the clarity of the whole picture image 14 is sacrificed since the image blending method is applied throughout the picture image 14.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide an image processing method to solve the above mentioned problems.
Briefly, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides an image processing method of an image processing system. The image processing system has a memory for storing programs and a picture image, and a processor for executing the programs stored in the memory. The picture image has a plurality of pixels. The method has three steps. The first step is to find at least one image area with a predetermined characteristic from the picture image according to a predetermined image area detecting method. The second step is to define a boundary area around the image area according to a predetermined boundary area defining method. The third step is to adjust pixels inside the image area according to a predetermined color adjusting method, and adjust pixels inside the boundary area according to a different but similar color adjusting method so that the color adjustment can be extended from the image area to the boundary area.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the second color adjusting method is only applied to the boundary area so that the image not within the boundary area of the image area will be retained.
These and other objects and the advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, as illustrated by the included figures and drawings.